GREEN BAY — Asthma did what the Minnesota Vikings’ defense couldn’t do Sunday.

It stopped Eddie Lacy.

Lacy, a battering ram for the Green Bay Packers Sunday at Lambeau Field in a 26-26 tie, left the game late in overtime when his respiratory condition made worse by 19-degree weather caught up to him.

“It’s worse in the winter time,” Lacy said. “I’ve had it since I was little. Sometimes it’s worse than others.”

It was by far the coldest game ever for Lacy, who played in high school at Geismar, La., and in college at Alabama.

“And it’s going to get worse, I think,” he said, laughingly looking ahead to two December games in Green Bay and another in Chicago.

Until then, Lacy had one of his best games of an outstanding rookie season. After a slow start, he pounded the Vikings on a consistent basis.

“I think he’s a great back,” said Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway, an eight-year veteran. “One of the strongest running backs I’ve played against.

“He’s difficult to tackle one on one, so you have to bring a lot of ‘hats’ to the party and keep hitting him for four quarters. Because he’s going to give it to you for four quarters and try to wear you down.”

Lacy started slowly, gaining 5 yards in his first four carries. Twice defensive end Jared Allen tackled him after playing off blocks by tackle David Bakhtiari.

It was shades of the past two games, when running backs coach Alex Van Pelt said he didn’t think Lacy ran hard enough. He broke just one tackle in 16 touches against the New York Giants.

Then Lacy broke tackles by middle linebacker Audie Cole and defensive tackle Kevin Williams for a 5-yard gain. One play later, he spun away from safety Jamarca Sanford, setting up a touchdown.

The next time the Packers had the ball, Lacy simply refused to go down, surging around and through Greenway, Sanford and Sharrif Floyd for a gain of 9.

Lacy made a decisive cut behind Josh Sitton’s block on Greenway for 14.

In the fourth quarter, Matt Flynn turned to Lacy as a receiver. He caught three check-downs for 27 yards and three passes in the flat for 21, including a 13-yard reception in which he sent cornerback Xavier Rhodes flying with a heavy blow from his forearm.

“I think it lights a spark under Packer Nation,” fullback John Kuhn said. “You hear the fans get riled up after something like that. If it jacks the fans up, you know our sideline’s going to be happy.”

One of Lacy’s most impressive runs came on fourth and 1 at the Minnesota 27 late in the fourth quarter.

It was an outside zone play to the left, and not only did the Vikings beat the Packers off the ball, but they also appeared to have an extra defender on that side.

Lacy slithered around Greenway and Sanford, cut back and came away with 4 yards.

“He put his head down and kept his feet runnin’,” center Evan Dietrich-Smith said. “And we just kind of grabbed him and pulled him across.”

Lacy’s final two carries came on the Packers’ first of three overtime possessions. From the Minnesota 7, he ran off the left side for 4, and on second down he gained 1 inside before being downed by Brian Robison and Allen.

“I’ll have to go back and look at the tape,” Lacy said. “I heard one of them I could have possibly scored. I read it wrong. A misread, I guess.”

Lacy didn’t quibble about not getting the ball on the next play, which was third down from just inside the 3.

“He’s a good runner who runs downhill,” Allen said. “He is a good second-effort back who keeps the legs going and is hard to tackle.”

Lacy finished with 110 yards in 25 carries against a defense that played almost the entire game with an extra safety in the box. In the last two games the Packers had rushed for just 154 yards (3.1 average) against defenses that jammed the line.

Helped by a 34-yard burst by James Starks, the Packers rushed for 196 yards (5.8).

“Eddie’s having a great season, Starks is having a great season and with Aaron (Rodgers) out these guys are going to look to stop them first and see if they can hold up on the outside,” Kuhn said. “We tried to manage that the whole game. We did a pretty good job running the football and blocking up front.”

Lacy, with 806 yards in 197 carries, is averaging 4.09. Starks, with 325 in 56, is averaging 5.8.

“Sometimes (Lacy) gets stuck between power and balance,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “That’s his run style. Gifted young man.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Sports

The Twins and the cash-strapped Tampa Bay Rays had plenty of trade conversations throughout the offseason. Saturday evening, all those cell minutes and text messages finally bore fruit. Right-hander Jake Odorizzi, who turns 28 just before Opening Day, will make the short drive from Port Charlotte, Fla., to Fort Myers to join his new team. In exchange for Odorizzi, who...

With only 20 minutes separating the Wild from building a three-point cushion over the Ducks for the final spot in the Western Conference playoff race, they let the lead slip away and ultimately fell 3-2 to on the heels of the longest shootout in franchise history. After 11 rounds and 22 shooters, Ducks winger Nick Ritchie finally beat Devan Dubnyk...

The Gophers men’s hockey team settled for a 1-1 tie with Ohio State on Saturday at 3M Arena at Mariucci but moved within one point of clinching home ice for the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Mat Robson stopped 38 of 39 shots he faced for Minnesota (19-13-2, 10-10-2-1), which is unbeaten in its past four games. After...

Karl-Anthony Towns was the toast of the NBA during his rookie season. The revolutionary big man was the unanimous choice for the league’s Rookie of the Year award after capturing all six Western Conference Rookie of the Month awards during the season. Surely, he was on the path to becoming one of the league’s next great players. These were the...

The matchups for the 2018 Minnesota high school girls hockey state tournament are set. Defending champion Edina earned the top seed in Class 2A, after knocking off defending Class A champ Blake in Friday’s Class 2A, Section 6 title game. Centennial will be the No. 2 seed in its first tournament appearance since 2008, while Hill-Murray, making its sixth straight...

The Gophers suffered another setback Saturday as the team announced guard Amir Coffey will undergo surgery on his right shoulder and miss the remainder of the season. The 6-8 guard already missed 10 games prior to Saturday’s announcement with the right shoulder injury. Coffey originally hurt the shoulder in early January, then re-injured it on a late-game dunk in the...